Thursday 25 August 2011

At the Archives - Bradford Royal Ear and Eye Hospital & Bradford Royal Infirmary Nurses League

I managed to complete two sets of records this week (23/8/11).

Firstly the Annual Reports of the voluntary Bradford Royal Ear and Eye Hospital. The annual reports provide an overview of the activities of the hospital, more detailed records are held at the Wakefield archives. The hospital cared for some of the first wounded soldiers to arrive in Bradford in October 1914 and continued to give beds up for through the war although less so towards the end of the war after the Bradford War Hospital had been expanded to cope with demand. It was difficult to get an accurate measure of numbers from these records but in 1917  they treated 120 wounded soldiers.

The second set of records were from the Bradford Royal Infirmary Nurses League which held its first meeting to establish itself in October 1916. I examined their minutes, annual magazine and some miscellaneous documents. There were fabulous accounts from some of the members regarding their work in France, Egypt, and Belgium etc during the War. There was also one account of a nurse at Buckingham Palace receiving a medal from the King. There are no names assigned to these early articles but the latter is likely to be by Miss S A Brown who was awarded the first class distinction of the Military Nursing Medal the Royal Red Cross.

More blog articles with the results of this research to follow shortly.

If you have any ancestors who were nurses at the BRI it would be well worth a look at these records as you might be able to trace their nursing career through them.

Source
Bradford Royal Ear and Eye Hospital Annual Reports
Bradford Royal Infirmary Nurses League minutes & magazine

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